Supreme Court Judgment

In May 2011, the Supreme Court made a declaration that that the Association of Chief Police Officer (ACPO) guidelines on the retention of DNA, fingerprints and Police National Computer (PNC) records (adopted in 2006) are unlawful because they are incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Supreme Court's judgment means that:

The judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the Marper case now applies to the UK courts

The current police guidelines for the retention of DNA, fingerprints and Police National Computer (PNC) records in England and Wales are unlawful

The Government has a "reasonable time" to adopt new rules on retention (currently being considered by parliament in the Protection of Freedoms Bill). If it fails to do so up to a million innocent people could bring cases to court.

Resources

Police guidelines issued in response to the Supreme Court confirm that the police will continue operating its existing (unlawful) 'exceptional cases' procedure for the removal of records on the Police National Computer (PNC), DNA database and fingerprint databases until parliament has finished consideration of the Protection of Freedoms Bill.